RS

MEMBER DIARY

The Violent Mobs of Keratea: America’s Future

A week ago, with little attention from the Trump-obsessed American media, one of the most important stories in the last years of Western Civilization happened in a small town outside of Athens, Greece. After months of rioting and mayhem, Keratea residents agreed to a “truce” with authorities wherein riot police would withdraw from Keratea and cede control of the city to the violent mobs.

But the American media has barely covered this story which is surprising since it is about “the people” rising up against the government in a Wisconsin (or Egyptian) style protest. The conflict began when residents of Keratea were told that a new landfill would be built in their area. In the volatile country, already rocked by civil unrest caused by their economic near collapse, this sparked rebellion almost immediately:

As unemployment rises and austerity bites ever harder, tempers seem to fray faster in Greece, with citizens of all stripes thumbing their noses at authority. Some refuse to pay increased highway tolls and public transport tickets. There has been a rise in politicians being heckled and even assaulted. Yesterday, in Thessalonika, scores of activists were arrested after violent clashes with police.

The anger is most palpable in Keratea, a town of 15,000 people 30 miles south of Athens which appears to have spun out of control. The state’s attempt to start work on a planned landfill site on a nearby hillside in December caused locals to set fire to construction vehicles and erect massive roadblocks on a road that bypasses the town and runs to the capital. It’s a fight that has galvanised the town, from the mayor and the local priest to shopkeepers, farmers, schoolteachers and teenagers.

Over the past four months, locals have developed increasingly inventive roadblocks to stop contractors from getting to the site. They have parked trucks across the street and built piles of rubble and dirt. Apparently in it for the long haul, they have erected a wooden hut by the side of the road to serve as protest headquarters, complete with campaign posters, news clippings and children’s drawings of the riots. Their latest move was a nocturnal expedition to dig a shoulder-deep trench across both lanes of the road. That was one step too far for the authorities, who, on Thursday, sent in workers – protected by police – to repair the damage.

Within hours, the confrontation degenerated. Masked youths hurled firebombs and rocks at riot police, who responded with rubber batons and repeated volleys of tear gas. A police helicopter circled overhead. “The town is out of control. Business activity has stopped,” said Yannis Adamis, a resident and mechanical engineer. “The stores are closed. The sirens are blaring, the [church] bells are ringing, people are on the streets. This cannot continue.”

In nearby streets, gaggles of teenage girls, cut lemons held to their noses to ward off tear gas, mingled with young men in balaclavas, stocking up on rocks to throw at police. An elderly man wielding a shepherd’s staff stormed past. “We’ve learned at the age of 60 about Molotov cocktails,” he thundered through his gas mask – an accessory sported by young and old alike. He would give only his first name, Panagiotis. By the end of the night, more than 20 people – including three riot policemen – had been treated in hospital. Just after midnight, a police officer’s home was attacked with firebombs, leaving three cars destroyed. The officer and his wife, who is also in the police force, and their four children were home at the time but unharmed, police said.

The state has lost its monopoly on force in Greece, but more importantly, the state is no longer considered a legitimate authority. The people of Keratea stopped the state from moving forward in its business of keeping the Greek infrastructure updated. Think about this for a second: the people of Keratea were willing to burn families alive to keep a landfill from being built. And after 129 days of anarchy the state capitulated to their demands and more. They ceded control of an entire city to a disorganized mob of people who tried to set fire to a family because the parents were police officers.

This is perhaps why the same media that lionizes union thuggery in Wisconsin kept quiet about this story. But there’s another reason no one wants to direct your attention to this story – it will happen here.

Keratea is not the result of one decision by the government, it is not the result of urban planners deciding to put a landfill there. It is the end result of the Greek social welfare state raising generation upon generation of people who see the state as an inexhaustible source of largess. Greeks have learned to live in a lifelong period of extended adolescence where an absent parent gives them allowances and takes care of all the “grownup” stuff that would interfere with their childish pursuits. Now these over-sized children are being cut off and they literally have no ability to live in a Greece where they are responsible for their own lives or are inconvenienced in any way. Keratea was already a powder keg and the landfill they are “protesting” was the spark. The ineffective and mincing Greek government has no ability to ensure law and order.

The Keratea model should sound very familiar to Americans, especially those who live near urban areas. Our cities are filled with people who not only depend on government handouts, but have no ability to survive without them. The same populations are targeted by activists of various stripes who use this army of parasites with time on their hands to provide the militancy of their movements. There are dozens of Kerateas in America, all tinderboxes ready to explode into anarchy at the slightest spark.

Union supporters are sending death threats to lawmakers because they might be forced to make modest concessions; imagine what will happen when America starts cutting the amount of money welfare recipients get.

Keratea is the dark side of the “heroic” protests the media trumpeted in Wisconsin. It is the end result of the leftist mob mentality and it is now a given that it will happen here. When gas hits $7 or groceries get too expensive or banks are shut down due to a currency collapse, people will revert to Greek-style barbarity. Americans are even less likely to accept a slowdown of government services and handouts, and the Left is more likely here to engage in violence. No wonder the media ignores this story–it is a glimpse of the future they’re creating.